


Expectations and Reality

by niennavalier



Category: Prison Break
Genre: Angst, Episode Tag, F/M, Family Feels, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-20 01:03:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11909979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niennavalier/pseuds/niennavalier
Summary: For so many years, he'd been planning how to break free, how to return to the family he'd left behind. But actually being free, back with his family - he can't help but feel like he's the one who will never belong.Coda to the last scene in the park in 5x09.





	Expectations and Reality

**Author's Note:**

> From an anon prompt on tumblr: "Michael returns. But he has no expectations, no presumptions or assumptions about his place in Sara & Mike's life. On his good days he knows he has no right to ask for anything. On his bad days he knows he'll never be worthy of either." A million apologies this wasn't done sooner. This is my first attempt at PB fic, so a dozen more apologies if it sounds weird; it was sorta a shot in the dark for me. I hope this is decent!
> 
> (Also, FYI, I altered the prompt just slightly cause I think it was sent to me before the finale, but I couldn't help but set this anywhere but the end)

    Breaking out of Yemen had been one thing, every step carefully measured, meticulously calculated in pursuit of the one thing that had been his sole motivation for seven years - Linc, Mike, Sara. Family. A chance to see them all again, regain the life he’d lost all because of a single phone call all of those years ago.

    All because of a single prison break, at the start.

    But actually being out, actually being free, seeing his family again - that turns out to be a different thing entirely. Sitting on the grass, watching all the people he loves - it’s hard not to feel this sense of wrong. Like there’s some sort of invisible wall between them he can’t cross. Like he’s been chasing this for so long, building up an ideal in his head, only to realize it isn’t quite what he’d expected.

    He can’t help but feel like there’s some sort of disconnect, more than just the physical space separating him from them in the moment. A feeling like he doesn’t belong. He’d already missed so many years, had seen Sara move on with her life, no matter that was in part due to Jacob - Poseidon - pulling the strings. He hadn’t been there to raise their son, hadn’t been part of her life for nearly a decade; what right did he have to think he could insinuate himself as if nothing had happened?

    Mike had called Jacob his father. What more proof did he need than that?

    He’d long ago lost the right to ask for anything, much less a warm welcome to a home he wasn’t sure really existed for him anymore. Already, he’d asked for so much from Sara alone - her trust with the infirmary door, the same and more after he’d escaped Fox River, her strength when he’d left with nothing more than a video message and a goodbye kiss and another lie. Yet, despite that, he can’t even claim any longer to be a man she might even vaguely recognize, blood on his hands and death on his conscience. With the world falling quiet around him, there’s nothing - no threat, no adrenaline, no running - to drown out the sound of his thoughts, to distract him from the ever-present feeling he should be looking over his shoulder, shouldn’t be letting his guard down.

    Once upon a time, he’d considered himself a good man. Now he isn’t so sure anymore.

    Any semblance he’d felt of peace begins to slip away as his mind wanders down the dark roads he’s had to treat, dark roads that make him question whether someone like him ever could deserve redemption, deserve the life he’d let himself dream about for so long.

    A small hand tapping on his shoulder jolts him out of his reverie.

    “Mike?” His son is at his side, something in his hand, but none of it is really processing.

    “Mom said that you made this.” It’s a crane, one of the set he’d mailed to Sara back when escaping to Panama had seemed like their best option. He’d never known she’d kept them, especially after so long. “Can you show me how?”

    He feels more than decides to nod and answer with an affirmative, watching Mike grin and make his way back toward Sara. Who smiled back at him herself, having apparently seen everything, and that loosens the knot of tension that’s been building in his chest. Mike turns back around then, fixing him with an inquisitive glance.

    “Dad?”

    And in that moment, it feels like everything would turn out right. Even if everything wasn’t quite what he’d expected, it could still be perfect nonetheless.

**Author's Note:**

> I had to end it with Mike calling Michael "Dad". It's the one thing I sorta resent the show for not giving us. So fic instead.
> 
> Say hi on [ tumblr! ](niennavalier.tumblr.com)


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